database, it is -- and the student graduates. dr. murase: i have two questions. i have to say while this is a positive story, 10th year of improving test scores, we're operating in funding crisis where the state is not funding public education in the way they need to. i find it remarkable we're able to make these gains despite the fact that we're delivering a nine month school year and day -- in a seven month school year budget.

the state has decided to spend $5,000 on a student when other states are spending three times as much. you do not want to make projections but i feel like we could be doing so much more, and we could be much more in the advanced category if the state were fully funding our public education system. with these positives, albeit incremental improvement, it is a testament to the hard work of our teachers. blood, sweat, and tears in a and ferment that is not advocate -- adequate. the elephant in the room is one will california start funding public education adequately.

i wondered how our district fares in terms of overall test scores among urban school districts. in the past we have been number one. san as a is pretty close. i wanted to see if you knew what that figure was? >> on the api, we are still among the top california districts. san diego beat us this time. there were 798. -- the they were 798. they continue to be among the top in math. i think san diego had 1% higher. >>commissioner maufas: i dog

eared a few pages. the first is for the cst out to our eighth grade. it was last year that we had our eighth graders taking algebra. when would you implement that? >> it is 83% of our eighth graders are now enrolled in algebra. we moved from 61 to 83%. >> even before then, we were going -- our statistics showed a downward trend. is there an explanation for that? that downward trend before we decided to say, everybody needs to get in here? >> actually, it is by school. there are some schools that have

had great success. we have had over 80% and 90% of students being proficient in algebra but as they give entry to more students and access to more students, i think the rate has fallen now to 67% to 70% in the schools. there is more access to breathable algebra. -- grade level algebra. commissioner maufas: on the graduation drop out, what is the other? you might have said it and we missed it -- i missed it. >> students who are still enrolled in school, they have not graduated. commissioner maufas: thank you. and i th inink commissioner wyns

asked about the survey. i am done. commissioner fewer: i thank you for this information. it is telling that we have work to do in math, when we look at algebra 2, 4.7% of african- americans proficient, down 5.2. we only had 9.9% before. is that what i am reading? obviously, they are not prepared. that is a little disappointing there. also, every time i see this, it shocks me when i see that the percentage at or above purse -- proficient that are african americans do worse than students

with disabilities percentage wise. i now to answer the question, -- lma did gain. we see that african-americans in math are second to last if you look at the second to the largest school district in 2 010. as we give more access, we have a lot of work to do. meaning that we have to make sure that they are successful and the only reason i mention this is we have a graduation requirement in algebra 2. when i look at this, this could greatly affect our graduation rates. also, the lack of opportunity

for some of our students. i think that it -- we should look at what other districts are doing. l.a., l.a. unified has implemented strong rti and why we are not doing that is something we need to work on. 10 times the size of us. their test scores are testing 10 times the amount of african- american students and yet, almost 10 percentage hunt -- points higher than we are. i think while we are saying we have made gains in a horrible budget year, this is -- i feel like we to meet our strategic pn

calls, but i think you for this information. it is always interesting, and it is always good to have a discussion in public about where students are and how close are we to closing hour gap, so thank you very much. president mendoza: any of their comments? commissioner -- any other comments? commissioner fewer? commissioner fewer: i would really like to hear, is a possibility to have that slide put up again for english language, and then we can talk back and forth?

thank you. for the english language arts, and we can talk back and forth between them, it is auyp for english language bards -- ayp for english language yards arts. the only ones passing the official line are asian and white, and if you look at the mathematics, same thing. so i guess i would like to hear, and i think you have this information, but i went to know what are you getting from school sites and teachers and principals about this? i mean, i am sorry, it is not a phenomenon.

it is just the way it is, and what are they talking about about how they're going to resolve it? i know we at the board level are creating policies, initiatives, and we are doing everything is, but since you are talking to school site folks, and teachers, what are they saying around this? i know there are quite aware of it, because we all are, but when we see here year after year after year, and there may be gains in the subgroups, but that photograph remains constant, and i would like to hear from you besides all of the initiatives and policies that we create, what is happening at school sites? aside from what i hear. i am not here to take statistics. i am here to hear the conversation, but you are calculating the information in a statistical way.

something we know that is a constant. the deputy superintendent. >> i got the look that said "punt," so i will take the ball. it is a simple issue, but it is not a simplistic answer. what are you doing to show's success, and i think the brilliance of what the doctor did was to capture that in

categories so there are different approaches that schools are taking to really address the achievement gap. some schools are focusing on very specific sub groups. some are taking the approach where they are looking at content areas. a general response to your very, very good question, it is not easy to hear. we as a district for many years have been all over the place. there has not been a focus where we have said, "these are the two or three fundamental things that we are going to focus not only our attention but our finances and up professional developers around so that everyone is exposed to that in terms of professional development. we have not done that. what you are starting to see is that we as a school district hold certain fundamental truths to be absolutely true. all students deserve a high quality curriculum.

all students deserve to have teachers that have resources, that have professional development, that are able to provide effective and -- instruction to the students. unfortunately, in the past, we have not align our resources, a professional development, to assuring that everyone had the opportunity to avail themselves of these opportunities. that is the bad news. the good news is that we are actually starting to do that, and we are actually starting to focus on curriculum instruction, and there is a misnomer that happens out there, and i think it is really important for the public to understand that we typically talk about what teachers are doing in the classroom. teachers, they are the most critical element in the classroom, but teachers are not what we should be looking at. what we should be looking at is what are our students learning and able to demonstrate to us as having learned in the classroom, so it is a shift in this

practice in the district, and it is a culture shift. we are not interested in going in there anymore and looking at a lesson that the teacher has prepared. what we want to know is, what are you expecting students to learn? and how will they learn after you have provided the instruction? it is a fundamentally different conversation to have because you are not looking at the pieces, you are looking at the outcome. you cannot negate the importance of students being prepared physically and mentally in the classroom, as well, so when we talk about african-american students, latino students, students with disabilities, pacific islander students, what we are looking in those communities as well is a connection to the curriculum that makes it culturally relative to the students, as well, so that is the cultural relevance where looking for in all schools for all students, but particularly for those that

we have decided are part of our achievement gap. it is slow work. it is hard work. it is work that easily could be misconstrued as putting the blame on someone, so the approach that we are taking and the conversation we're going to have at our retreat even at a deeper level and that we cannot have 13 priorities. we really have to have two or three, and in an environment where we have dwindling resources that are less and less common than the board has been extremely wonderful, but the board has to be even more stoic when we get hit with we need to do this, that, and the other thing, to hold the line and say, "that is all fine and good" until we know what is good for the kids in our strategic plan. how are we finding matt? then we can talk about adding on, but that is really the core, central work that we are doing.

-- how are we finding that? -- funding that? there is a change coming. as we're working with teachers and principals and assistant principals around doing this deep dive into curriculum and unpacked in the standards and understanding what they look like in a classroom, there is tremendous excitement that we are seeing from folks in the field, saying, "aha!" we see an excitement level we have really not seen in the last three years in the professional ladder in the classrooms, as well. i would just really emphasize that this cannot happen, and this will not happen if it does not continue to be the priority

of the board, like you have demonstrated already, that we are going to focus on this, but we're going to continue to focus on this, that we will not be sideswiped and take in a straight other initiatives, that this is the central focus of the district. this is why we have been able to show some nominal gains, a truly revolutionary outcome for the students in the coming years. i do not know if the doctor or associate superintendent want to add anything to that? >> very eloquently said. two things. one, i am a big proponent of access, of letting kids through the gates, be exposed to the learning. when we look, when students were not in algebra, they took general math, and the proficiency rates are very, very low, and they did not get exposed to algebra, so letting kids through the gate and having all of us, all of us educators

learn how to teach algebra to everyone is a challenge that we have to keep working on. we are doing some exciting things. we are looking at middle school deeply, but we're also looking at elementary. we have higher rates in elementary, over 60%, but we are now figuring they need to come to middle school because they have to come with 80% to 90%, but with our superintendent and deputies to support this year, we have 10 of our middle schools, every sixth, seventh, and eighth grade teacher of mathematics is involved in a program called algebraic thinking, and they are going to learn instructional strategy is in sixth and seventh grade that really are about precursors to success in algebra. one of the things you need to have mastered to do well in algebra, and in addition to the regular core curriculum that we

are teaching, it is kind of an over and above, and it begins this week. all six, seventh, and eighth grade students from our middle schools. we are really excited. carlos has seen this and action, and it is an approach to teaching algebra, pictures and things and charts and equations, so we are really hopeful. it is not good enough. we are pretty hopeful this will make a difference. commissioner: thank you, a very, very much for your explanation on the fly. i appreciate your discussion about the shift of approach, particularly asking teachers what do you expect your students to learn and how do you know you are learning that? i think that is crucial.

i am going to refrain. that is what i am going to do. not so patient that i will not common in about one or two months, but i am interested to see continuing results around the ship, because i think that shift is critical, and it has not been brought forward to everyone, and this is the way we are going to operate, and you are expected to be with us in this new look at how students are beginning it or how they are not getting it and has what we are going to do about it and how we will enhance the process i appreciate that, as well. it is more like we have a situation, and what are we going to do to fix it, so i appreciate that.

president mendoza: thank you. student delegates? student delegates: truancy and african americans. if everyone took the tests, would these be higher? i know that my school, which may not be the same for every other school is that teachers or the principal to go hunting down kids to take the test, and i would say that those kids are the kids that have truancy problems and that those kids are the ones that are scoring low back as well, so would not those be higher if everyone took the test? >> actually, the state has a criteria that every school has to have a participation rate of at least 95% before they publish the scores, so they did have a

95% or above participation rate to even have the scores be there, so there is a lot of, you know, may wake-up time that we give for make up time. they are administered pretty widely across the school. commissioner: however, if you do not mind, student delegate, we see that many african-americans are high in truancy. even by school, 95% has to be tested, some have a low percentage of african-american students, and that could mean that disproportional, attendance is not the mere testing all of the african american students. we have a diminishing african- american population in our

school district. some schools, such as may be balboa, does not even have a measurable amount, right? you have about 100 or so. because you have to be there, to take all of the tests, so if you missed one test, you are not counted. i think she asks a very good question. that maybe these tests cords do not show was actually the absolutes of where we are at that, quite frankly, it could be higher or lower depending on our african-american population that actually takes invalid test, right? because when we look at truancy, it is also like that. that is a very good question.

>> i think it is a good question, and what i will do is show you a report that shares you what the ethnicity is of the students that were not tested by school. so we will give you that report, so we will give you the ethnicity of the students and the number of students that were not tested, ok, or by school, and we will give you a five-year trend, so for you and us, it would be good information to have. student delegate: everyone was there for the english test, but everyone runs away from the mathematics test, and the numbers even showed that the students ran away from the math test, so -- newmont -- president mendoza:

superintendent? superintendent: we are very aware of this. over five or six years. that is ok, and that is better than san francisco has done in the past, but it does not come close to being good enough, and remember that we are trying to fix this on multiple fronts. we adopted and the map series for elementary. that is going to take time to have an impact. if you go out and look at our math scores, overall, they're starting to improve in the elementary levels. it is a better series. teachers like it. parents like it. it is more hands on. it introduces algebra, thinking, things like that, geometry at a very young age so it demystifies it for people so they are not afraid of it. one thing you find that everybody on the planet is sure of, they can flaunt algebra, so

if you correct that, people make that expectation, and we have to change that, and that is what we are doing. they took a quantum leap in math and algebra, and why? the pilot did a different type of program. 10 different spots. we are seeing phenomenal growth with them program because kids actually like algebra if they go through this kind of program. what a novelty to have something that kids are excited about, so we are working on the elementary. we are working on the middle school. when you look at the high school results, it is a little late. we have to create a better system for our students, because you cannot expect -- i think commissioner stewart -- fewer is

right. it is easy to have an a through g requirement. so that people will be there. if people cannot even get in the door, now the we have got them in the door, we have to make sure that they are successful. we have to have folks, let's be real. not only in this district but across the country and the world pretty much, who only certain kids could do algebra, and we have to tear down that cultural shift. we have to be able to say that it is not a question of whether kids can lose -- learn algebra. is that we have to do it in a way where they want to learn, and that has been the greatest challenge. the programs that we have them do that work, but for anybody to think that, i mean, we are showing this 10 points for african americans.

over five to six years. that is a great start. it shows that it can be done, but we have to be showing double-digit growth per year to really get to where we would be satisfied, because at this rate, it will take 25 years to close the achievement gap. nobody here will probably be there. we cannot wait that long. these guys might take our place. what we can do is we do not have to read mediate. we have to accelerate this, and we are talking about now, as the deputy superintendent mentioned, we are getting the court's standards, and everybody teaches what is in the bayview, and everybody is learning this and getting the credit. there have been a lot of

innovations in the last 10 years. they have learned that they cannot. the on in to fix this is to take a lot of time, commitment, and resources. financially, the school district itself cannot afford to do these things. but we are lucky to have other collaborative groups out there, universities, everyone, who are working on these. it is hard to be patient. trust me. this data drives me nuts, particularly as we do this by ethnicity. we have a long way to go. the good news is that everybody is taking responsibility for it. it is no longer blaming yb